Passover Haggadah, etchings in color by the artist Ya'akov Boussidan, [1975].
Artist's book of Ya'akov Boussidan [b. 1939]. Thirty remarkable etchings in color accompanying the Haggadah text and verses of Genesis, including etchings depicting the creation, the Ten Plagues, Had Gadya, and other scenes.
The Haggadah was published in 50 copies signed and numbered by Boussidan. Offered here is copy no. 28. The etchings are signed (and most of them are dated).
"Boussidan decided that the lettering of his Haggadah would be uncompromisingly traditional, and he discovered it - in a combination of two traditions, Ashkenazi and Italian - in a standard book of lettering, thus establishing his affiliation, as a link in the chain. He left the actual designing of the letters, in black and white, in the hands of a graphic artist, and when he had been furnished with a text, he set about paging and enlarging and placing and colouring it, as it appears here… From this point on, Boussidan felt free to construct a Haggadah with a personal stamp, and he had done this not only in terms of the illustrations, but also in the text itself, inasmuch as he has introduced a number of verses from the book of Genesis into the traditional text. The Passover Haggadah - as Boussidan sees it - is the narrative of the birth of a people, and it is, therefore feasible to introduce into it an account of the birth of the world: likewise, the 'Covenant between the Pieces' (Genesis XV:17), in which the Exodus is alluded to for the first time in our annals. The first eight etchings are related to the six days of Creation, and to the Covenant. In addition, all the etchings in the Haggadah, numbering thirty, are related to various aspects of the development of Creation, in which the likenesses of people and landscapes and animals are captured, so to speak, in their primeval state.
In the idiom of his designs Boussidan shows a complete disregard to the chronology of art history. It is apparent in every picture that is a product of the later part of the twentieth century, but no picture owes allegiance to any traditional artistic perception, defined in the complicated vocabulary of our times. Boussidan interprets the freedon not to feel oneself bound to any viewpoints, where others may have set limits. (Benjamin Tammuz, from the introduction to the Haggadah).
Size of prints varies, placed in the original portfolio and case (made of cardboard and fabric), 42 cm. Prints in good to very good condition. Defects to some tissue guards. Foxing to portfolio. Foxing and dampstains on case.